■Diplomacy
Chen praises wife's trip
President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) said yesterday that the first lady's just-concluded trip to Europe was a "mission impossible." In the latest edition of his online newspaper, the president said his wife, Wu Shu-chen (吳淑珍), lived up to public expectations of her visit to Germany and the Holy See that ended on Wednesday. The Germany trip really drained the first lady's strength, according to Chen, and she was exhausted at a banquet she threw for Taiwan's German friends during her last day in Berlin. Wu's aides suggested the first lady excuse herself halfway through the banquet, but Wu insisted on staying to the end as a dutiful hostess, Chen said. On the eve of her audience with Pope John Paul II in Rome on Monday, Wu's aides were scrambling to rehearse the first lady for the audience. Wu was very calm and joked that she might have a nice chat with the Pope and forget to leave at the right time. The first lady's laid-back attitude comforted her entourage, the president said. Chen said: "Always optimistic and self-confident, that is my dear wife."
■ Crime
Fake cellphone cases seized
Police seized more than 20,000 fake Nokia-brand cellphone cases Thursday from a warehouse at Sanchung, arresting three suspects. According to a preliminary investigation, the cases were supplied by a counterfeiter. The three suspects have been transferred to Panchiao Prosecutor's Office for indictment for violating trademark laws.
■ Overseas Chinese
OCAC official visits Texas
Vice Minister Liao Sheng-hsiung (廖勝雄) of the Overseas Chinese Affairs Commission is scheduled to visit Dallas, Austin, and San Antonio, Texas, from yesterday through Monday, an official of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Houston said yesterday. He said Liao was scheduled to meet with overseas Chinese in Dallas yesterday and today, in Austin tomorrow and in San Antonio on Sunday. While in Texas, he will deliver speeches on the relations between Taiwan and China and speak on Taiwan's participation in international organizations.
■ Defense
Taipei seeks missile batteries
The government has formally presented a letter of request to the US for the purchase of three Lockheed Martin Patriot PAC-3 anti-missile batteries, Jane's Missiles and Rockets reports. The US Department of Defense is evaluating the request, the magazine says in its Aug. 1 issue. "Taiwan is moving forward on missile defense, including PAC-3 and EWR [early-warning radar]," a US government source told the magazine. The source also stated that a positive recommendation is expected from the Pentagon for approval of the PAC-3 deal as Washington considers China's missile threat as the most serious risk to Taiwan's security. The report said China has 100 Dong Feng-11 (M-11) and 300 Dong Feng-15 (M-9) tactical ballistic missiles deployed within range of Taiwan.
■ Environment
Quake jolts eastern Taiwan
An earthquake measuring 4.3 on the Richter scale rocked eastern Taiwan yesterday, seismologists said. There were no immediate reports of damage or casualties. The tremor struck at 9:14am from an epicenter 8.5km north of Hsilin, Hualien County. It originated 18.8km below the earth's crust, according to the Seismology Center.
Agencies
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater